Morning Essays: Looking back at 2015

It has been an eventful year.

Starting with New Year's Eve a year ago. I had no idea at the time that tripping and twisting my leg would have such long lasting consequences. My knee hurt all day New Year's Day but when it stopped bothering me in a couple of days I forgot about it. Until May when I went bowling and played laser tag with my work. I'm not much of a bowler and didn't run too much at laser tag but by the time I drove home my knee was hurting just like in January. After a few days it became apparent that I was in need of a doctor.

The doctor x-rayed the knee and said the patella was out of alignment and gave me exercises to do. Which were way too painful to complete I could do two of them so that is what I did. Still not able to really walk I tried the doctor again and was sent for an MRI. Now they tell me I have scar tissue and there was not anything they could but give me a cortisone shot. The shot worked for exactly 3 months and I thought I was doing really well so I tried more of the exercises. That was either a mistake or the shot had worn off because by the next day I was worse then ever. Barely walking, in pain all the time. I turned 50 in June and figured it was all over and my body was shutting down I was telling people my warranty had expired.

At this point to top things off I caught a stomach virus and didn't eat for 4 days. This became a blessing in disguise, my dehydration reduced the inflammation in my knees. Of course now I just had to figure out how to keep me knee from getting swollen again. After a lot of searching the internet I found some suppliments that have helped a lot. I still have a hard time going up and down stairs, not doing much walking has really caused a lot of muscle loss.

I have had some good things happen this year it wasn't all depressing. For my 50th birthday my best friend Amber took me on a cruise to Alaska. It was beautiful. I went with her and my cousin Amber. My doctor told me I shouldn't go but I ignored him. Here are a few photos.

when I returned home we had a little party. I felt like my birthday lasted a whole month.

Another great thing that happened was with a art piece I created. Th Utah Shakespeare Theater was doing a celebration this year to commemorate the last year in the Adams Memorial Theater. They had a juried art show originally consisting of 25 pieces. Mine was accepted. I was so excited. We drove it down just before the opening. My aunt JoAnne and I went down for the reception. It felt so good when I walked in and they asked if I was an artist. I said yes and they asked which piece I told them the one made of tickets and they told me how much they liked the piece. I priced it at $900. Calculating the cost of supplies and labor plus the festivals take. When we went over to see it I couldn't believe it had sold. I couldn't believe it, my first major art sale. I think that is what has motivated me to continue creating this year.

My piece before framing

Close up

This summer I started watching YouTube videos on art. I started following an art journal Facebook page and was posting the pieces I created on my Facebook page. This got me an invitation to teach at an Art Party. That was fun. I wasn't sure what to expect this being my first painting teaching gig. But everyone was very friendly and I think they all created great unique pieces. This whole adventure inspired my to start recording myself creating the art journal pages and by October I had started a channel. I now have 57 subscribers another exciting adventure.

Here are a few art journal pieces from before I started recording;

I also went to Washington State this year for a family reunion. I love going up there. Some day I'm going to go when we don't have to hit all the tourist spots.